Seven Things

01 - My writing ambition has somewhat demised. I haven't been sending out my short stories to any online journals. I think now I prefer writing contests more. At least the competition isn't everybody. I had entered a couple of writing contests before and of course I didn't win but it just seemed somewhat easier than having to randomly choose which story to send because as specific as online journals are with their guidelines (and sometimes themes or genres), they are still sort of vague in some strange way while writing contests are while just as specific, at least, they are not as vague but maybe that's just my experience. Anyway, writing contests are just easier although failure rate is kind of higher.

02 - I haven't been doing the Friday Writings challenges. I think having the restriction of writing the maximum words of 369 is something I'm not good at even though whatever writing (fiction, that is) I posted, I try to restrict to a low number although higher than 369. I guess I'm not one for brevity.
    Plus I think the Friday Writings challenges is more for poetry and prose as the participants are mostly writing poetry which I don't do any more. I like that they tell you what next week's prompt is so that you can write in advance. Check out Poets And Storytellers United over here if you like to participate.

03 - I haven't been participating (posting) in respect to Insecure Writers Support Group so they took me off their sign-up list. I actually haven't joined any other writing groups or even discussion groups so I guess being kicked off one matters little. It is nice to talk about your complaints, failures, activities and anything that gives amateur and seasoned writers something to share and bond over but like I said above, I don't have much writing ambitions so I didn't really have much to talk about. Visit the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog here.

04 - Book series connecting to one another — I don't like the idea of an author's book series all connected into a single world. I prefer a series (as most books are series) as belonging to itself, its own little universe. Also with connected series, you feel like you didn't really finish a series unless you read the connected other series. It's awful enough that book series are like twenty books long but now they are connecting all the series, it's maddening.

05 - Ebook pricing is really getting ridiculous — Recently I saw an ebook for $22.95 (pricing is usually set by the publishers) which usually are at $12.99. Then there were ebooks at $19 and even $35 - what have changed to make ebooks this ridiculously high? 
    I can't understand the pricing of ebooks but I think ebooks should be lower than paper books. When you buy an ebook, you're not buying a book, you're buying the rights to read a book so why should people pay the same amount equal to paper books when you cannot resell ebooks or even lend them unless you hand over your ereader.
    Frankly, I think people should just invest in their public library and borrow books from them. This way, everyone benefits. But that doesn't really solve anything. What would be better if publishers allow public libraries to have perpetual licensing of ebooks they purchase since they pay triple or even quadruple the price, way more than regular consumers. If publishers are going to treat ebooks like paper books, they should allow permanent ownership (not just letting ebooks sit in ereaders or have temporary licenses) of ebooks when people and public libraries purchase them.
    Here are two links talking about ebook pricing:
    - The hidden truth about ebooks & eaudiobooks
    - The problem with e-books (video)

06 - If anyone is interested in murder mysteries, there is a magazine, Deadly Pleasures, all about new and upcoming murder mysteries books. They now offer their magazine without subscription fees. Check it out over here.

07 - Book samples that only has an introduction — When I read a book sample, I expect to read some of the book not just an introduction. So yes, an introduction is part of a book but it is not the actual book, it's an opinion, an essay, a glorified love letter to the author or the book and it sometimes contains spoilers. For those reasons, I always skip reading the introduction when I read book samples but also when starting a book.
    For a real book sample, it should show the text, like chapter 1 and then some text - this shows samples of the writing style or how the book is structured or formatted, even a little taste of the characters. You don't get that reading an introduction.

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things: Some Mini Rants

01 - Do you ever have dreams where you go on some trip with a group of people, like to a museum and then for some reason they ditched you or that you somehow ended up alone and then you had to find your way back to the group but you got lost and before anything else happens, you wake up? No? I guess it's just me. I don't analyze my dreams or remember them but this one I remember. I guess it's one of those normal abnormal things because no one likes to be left behind.

02 - I don't have a license so I can't drive but traveling can be expensive even if you're going to the next neighborhood. My only way of transport is the subway, ie, the train. So if I'm somewhere and I couldn't find a train station, I wouldn't know how to get home. People use the subway because it's cheaper but now the train rides are more expensive which makes no sense. I barely know how to ride the bus which I think I rode twice. And taxis? I've only ride in one maybe once with someone. Taking a taxi is probably cheaper but I don't like that because you're alone in the back seat and who knows, maybe the taxi driver had other ideas and take you somewhere you don't want to go. 

03 - Recently I finished watching Soul Detective which is about a soul detective who finds/catches souls that had escaped from hell. It's a somewhat, light drama but with a lot of deaths and people getting possessed by souls and some romance and tiny bits of humor and a couple of sappy moments. The special effects are really well done. I enjoyed watching it. You can watch it here. Make sure to turn on the closed captions/subtitles for the English subtitles.

04 - I really starting to hate the phrase, Spoiler Alert, in fictional books. I find it's especially annoying in fantasy books. I can't give an example because I didn't mark them and don't remember them but it seems to be used to tell readers the obvious things with a slight attitude of annoyance. The ones I read were used in children's books so I find that even more annoying because it's like unless you're a child, you feel like they are trying too hard to sound young - I don't know if that's true but it just seems that way.

05 - I just finished a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle called Snow White and the Seven Gnomes with artwork by Demelsa Houghton. Houghton's artwork is gorgeous. This artwork is fun - one of the gnomes painted a mustache on the queen in the mirror. This was mostly a fun puzzle except I'm annoyed by all the puzzle dust. 

art by Demelsa Houghton

    If you don't know, Ravensburger puzzles pieces have blue backings instead of gray which is nice until you have to deal with it. There seems to be excessive dust so I couldn't completely remove them while putting the puzzle together so I have to accept it. For some reason, they just seems to multiply if you move them around as a group, like pouring them from a box to another box. I use boxes to sort the puzzle pieces so I have to remove the dust after each use. I really don't to figure out why the excessive puzzle dust or why the blue dye seems a bit clingy on smooth surfaces so I'm not buying any more Ravensburger puzzles and besides that, they are quite expensive and they don't even come with a poster.

06 - It just seems like lots of blogging things are ending - memes, challenges, co-ops, hops, blogs. Art challenges are the ones that seem to end more frequently, I think. There are many art challenges at instagram and other social media platforms but I'm more incline to participate if it's run on a blog by a blogger and stays there instead of spreading around to other platforms. 
    Motivations to create art (& do other things) has been very low for me these past few years. I do find with prompts, the creative juice seems to run more often. People crave doing creative things even when the motivation is not there, I know I do. Making art for my blog posts sort of counts as a small creative outlet but it's not quite there. Why have the motivation gone? Why do people stop doing things that make them happy? Who have answers to such things?
    Recently (more like a year ago), Thursday Art and Dinner Date ran by Rain has ended due to Rain wanting some time away from the internet. So now I'm thinking some blogger should make a new art challenge for bloggers who don't care to use social media. I would do it except somehow I just don't think I can. It's easy to come up with prompts but if I can't do, I can't ask other people to do it. I know there still a of art challenges out there but I haven't found one that I like so I'll keep looking.

Unofficial badge, more here.

07 - Anyone up for the Blogging from A-Z Challenge this April? I'm going to do it even if I don't finish. I like the challenge of using the alphabet as a guide to write 26 post. I don't pre-write any of my posts except maybe the first post. I like the extra challenge of writing a post before I publish it which no one have to do. I think even if you pre-write your posts, it's a good challenge for any blogger to sort of test your stamina and your blogging brain. It really is a challenge and not just something to do lightly. More about the A-Z challenge here.

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things: Little Rants

01 - "I adore complaining. It calms the nerves." — I came across this quote I wrote down from the book Chime by Franny Billingsley and I thought this makes perfect sense. I had done a lot of complaining on this blog and all my previous blogs and I think it's therapeutic. It may not do anything but I think it's better to let out your complaints than to keep them in. I'm not someone who does a lot of talking so writing is my talking out loud. 

02 - Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy is hosting a We Love Fairy Tales Week (February 9-14) — I love fairytales (I prefer the spelling without the space) and used to read any fairytale-like stories/books but these days, I don't read much of those but I'm still adore them. I'm going to post about some of my favorite fairytale retellings which mostly likely featuring some of favorite Beauty and the Beast retellings since that is my favorite fairytale although East of the Sun and West of the Moon is also a favorite and was the inspiration for Beauty and the Beast but with a bear. More about We Love Fairy Tales Week here.
    
03 - I seem to be reading a lot of books where the bad guy/villain/serial killer gets more page time than the main characters and I really hated that — I don't want to know how these people became these asshats, I don't want to sympathize with them, I don't want to know how they kill people. If I want to read such books, there are books solely with these bad guys as main characters. For books that centers on good guys, I would prefer more page time for the good guys. I suppose the question is why do we need to understand the bad guy when the reasons they did those awful things are sometimes just inhumane so I just prefer not to know more than necessary.

04 - Do people think about the noises around them? — It's the level of the noise that we probably don't consider. I didn't until recently with a new vacuum cleaner - why are vacuum cleaners so loud? Sure you hear something earsplitting once in a while which is fine but constant louder than loud noise is probably not good for your ears. The subway trains (where I am anyway) for an example, is really loud and sometimes there are these awful shrieking when a train must hit some metal parts or something while you're inside the train. And hair dryers - those can be loud - I've reduced to using the lowest setting but it's still loud. I've looked for low or no noise ones but they don't exist. So if anyone know of any good noise cancelling headphones, let me know.

05 - Whenever I commented on a Wordpress blog, there is a popup box asking me to subscribe but it wasn't like that before — I have turned on block pop-ups and third-party redirects in Firefox but it doesn't effect these wordpress blogs. It's not a horrible thing but when it does it every time I try to leave a comment, it does get a bit annoying. If I wanted to subscribe to a blog, I would have done so - I don't need constant reminders from the same blogs. 

06 - Music I've been listening to lately — I don't listen to new music often but when I do, they are usually released years ago so they are new to me music. I listen to a lot of Cantonese music  (specifically pop music that may have touches of rock, jazz, dance and others plus some lyrics in English) even though I don't understand the language, I just simply gravitate toward them. Here are the albums I have added to my playlist recently:

EMO (released in 2024) & Lifeline EP (released in 2021) by Jay Fung - Listen at youtube here >

Galaxy Within (released in 2023) & Bloom (released in 2025) by Pandora - Listen at youtube here >

Myself (我本人) (released in 2011), Across (released in 2014) & State of Mind (released in 2013) by Kary Ng - Listen at youtube here >

07 - Blogging from A-Z Challenge April 2026 — I know it's a bit early but I like to make a note of this challenge to remind myself. If you don't know, the A-Z Challenge is when you post every day (except Sundays) for the month of April using the alphabets as a sort of guide (this means exactly 26 posts). For example, day 1, you would post something that starts with the letter A like apples or apes who dance and then day 2 would be letter B for butter or beastly jokes - anything you can think of and you can even do themes.
    For me, I mostly post random stuff with some short fiction. I usually call this challenge '26 days of mild entertainment' since most of my posts aren't exciting things but they can sort of entertain. It's a good challenge for any bloggers who wants to add some stress to their blogging routine for a month or simply to have fun posting random things that may or may not have a theme. I enjoyed the challenge and I always finished it every year and I always seemed to vow not to do it again but fickle me always going see-saw about it but I'll probably do it. For more about the A-Z Challenge, go here.

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things: Some little rants

I'm not complaining, I just have things to say...

01 - I don't know why I keep procrastinating. I just keep putting things off. My brain tells me go ahead and do that thing I need to do but then my other brain (or part of it) tells me to put it off, I have plenty of time and maybe sometimes that's true but most of the time, I end up doing everything at the last minute. I don't know, there is no solution.

previous header

new header

02 - Slightly new blog header -  I have changed my header again because the previous felt a bit gloomy so I changed to this lighter one - not a lot of difference, just slightly newish elements added/altered.

03 - My blog's feed or whatever is called isn't working as usual. I subscribe to my blog through the Blogger dashboard so I can see how blog posts looks in the Reading list dashboard. Usually when I published a post, it would show up right away but now it seems to take awhile or sometimes a day to show up - what's up with that? I can see the post is posted because it's there on my blog but not the reading list. No idea why it suddenly become buggy.

04 - Stupid or Not? For years, I have been using the three Affinity apps (Publisher, Designer, Photo) and I've been liking them. I had decided to use the apps because they didn't require a subscription just a one-time payment and because the apps are similar to Adobe's apps (subscription-based Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop). (I still use adobe apps for work pay for by employer but never for any personal work.)
    The Affinity apps were created/owned by Serif but Canva brought them out in 2024. The Serif people claimed they won't change anything with the new ownership. Then came this October, they began offering their app (now a combination of the three apps into one) simply called Affinity or Affinity Studio (supposedly version 3) for free. I was all ready to upgrade but I didn't. To download and use the Affinity app, you have to sign up for a Canva account which I am not willing to do. 
    I paid for the apps but now I can't use the new version because I refuse to open a Canva account [insert all the cursing here.] I'm actually willing to pay NOT to be involved with Canva. It might be stupid to refuse to use an app for this reason but I just couldn't do it.
    So signing up for a Canva account didn't mean you have to use Canva but that's exactly what it means, doesn't it? You become a customer of Canva the moment you sign up for an account and even if they don't force you to use Canva or make you pay to use the Affinity app, things will not be that way because no big company swallows up a smaller company and that let everything be. I won't speculate how things will change but companies don't give out things for free for nothing. Affinity is free but you pay for it by being involved with Canva.   
    Canva is meant for non-designers, offering pre-made templates and other tools like fonts and images. I'm not saying Canva is bad but I simply prefer to never use them.
    In conclusion, there is no conclusion because one day, I'll probably sign up for Canva account just to use Affinity when I could no longer use the old apps (Serif people aren't going to update the old versions anymore) because technology kept being upgraded and sometimes you are forced to upgrade even when you are reluctant to do so. (Here's the link to Affinity if you want to check it out: https://www.affinity.studio/get-affinity)

05 - Why are so many reviews with hidden spoilers at Goodreads are cut off and sometimes in mid-sentence? Where are the rest of it? This is rather disappointing when I wanted to find out the ending. All these cut-off reviews keep appearing or maybe I keep finding them and they are seemed to be one-star reviews. Do they get cut off because they are spoilers, too long or because they are one-star, two-star reviews? There seems to be an option to blur spoiler text so this hidden spoiler box method is not even needed unless it's super long.
    And also, those hidden because of spoilers didn't have spoilers - why? I don't use Goodreads anymore so I don't know how it's done but I guess people could accidentally mark their review as hidden but so many people did this it must be too easy to do it.
    Goodreads still have no translations for reviews in foreign languages even though it's owned by amazon who had their foreign language reviews with the option to translate them. Goodreads have tons of foreign languages reviews so it didn't make sense not to have the translation option.
    I used to read amazon reviews but then they changed it so all you can read are top reviews and if you want to read the other reviews such as the one-star reviews, you have to sign into your amazon account or create one. I don't get this change. Why do you have to sign in to see all the reviews?

06 - My iphone (an old model) kept giving out notifications to finish setting it up but the thing is I don't want to set up those stupid features that are useless to me. Why should I waste time setting up things that I'm not going to use? It used to be you get to choose but now they just bug you to death until you do things their way. Well, I'm going to keeping ignoring all the notifications until I feel like finish setting up which should be in about ten years or when the phone dies.

07 - I don't like subscriptions - streaming tv/movies, streaming music, apps by subscription, etc. So I don't have any subscription, at least for now. Recently, I found that you have to pay by subscription to read the BBC News articles which had been free to read with advertisements for years. (And during those times, it kept asking you to sign up for an account which I never did.) I think you are allowed to read two articles for free and when you tried to read a third article, a popup screen would show up and ask you to sign up for a subscription to read the rest.
    As a freeloader (which I loath to admit but it's true) of most internet websites, this is extremely disappointing. I know they and almost everybody who runs such websites needs to make a living but I just thought online news should be free. There are other places for news that are free (with advertisements - they all have advertisements) but I'm a creature of habit, so it's hard to change. So now I just read headlines.

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things: Thoughts & Complaints

Greetings From Brooklyn

Today is September 7th so I thought it is appropriate to post another Seven Things which I haven't done in awhile. Basically, these are just random thoughts, complaints, rants – stuff that annoys me enough to think about them a bit longer. (I created this new art (above) as a digital postcard for a pal so I thought I shared it. It said Free Cupcake on the little poster on the right.)

01 - A recent author was maybe considered a scammer because her book turned out to be crappy. She hyped up her book so readers were expecting something amazing and they didn't get it. Any book no matter how well is written or how great the author is, still have a chance to be crappy so why are people complaining? I can understand the disappointment of spending money on a book and then getting something crappy. But she is not completely to blame. I think it's your fault if you believe in the hype, right? I mean, a lot of books were hyped/marketed to be amazing and never delivered so why focus on this particular author? 

02 - Technology is a bit problematic if you can't get online. For example, once when I searched my computer for why I can't get online, the answer my computer showed me is to tell me I have to be online to see the answers - why is the help on your computer not on your computer but online? The problem is everything is online so if you can't get online, than you're screwed. But I suppose you can call someone instead...

03 - Some bloggers have made their blog to allow only members of the blog to leave comments which I thought is a form of exclusivity. This is saying 'you can only participate if you're a member' which irks me but it shouldn't because everyone have the rights to have their blog read only by the people they want. 
    When new readers comes along, how are they to comment? Supposedly, would-be readers can email the blogger but for me, I'm a bit of a shy reader when it comes to new blogs (or even blogs I have read for years) so I don't go about asking permissions to comment on blogs. A while back, when some bloggers closed a blog and started a new one, they left a post about sending them emails to get their new blog's url but I never did that either. I don't know why but I feel a bit awkward asking for permission or their new url when I didn't need it before. I guess on a personal level, I'm not good at asking such things when I don't know if those bloggers even remember me as one of their readers. 

04 - Recently, I saw a video about tips to living a better life and the first thing is to clean your toilet - does it sound like your life would be better if you clean your toilet? It might be true but it's not the kind of advice I care for. I think if you're a clean freak, that might actually be your first choice but I don't know. I think they probably should have listed it lower on the list because I didn't want to watch the rest after that advice.

05 - Last month, I had to sign out of my kobo ereader and then when I signed back in, all my preferences are gone. What happened was I accidentally removed a library book while trying to remove a different book and somehow hit on the wrong book. Then I tried to retrieve it but it wouldn't work. Even when I returned and re-borrowed the book, it wouldn't re-upload when I synced the device. So I signed out of Kobo and then re-signed in but damm, all my preferences (text sizes, margin width, brightness settings, words I saved when I looked up their definition, etc.) are all gone. I have to reset every preference I had ever changed. I used the same kobo account and everything but it was as it was treating me like a new user. Why aren't my preferences saved to my device or account? It didn't make sense. Supposedly signing out of something can fix problems because when there is no other option and I wasn't going to reset the whole device but I might as well have done it since I had to reset every preference anyway.
    I was dumb not to try to sign out of Overdrive first which might have saved me some headaches which hadn't occurred to me. Maybe my brain isn't working too well these days but not being able to have your saved preferences when you signed out of the device is just  stupid. 

06 - Sadly, I have exceeded my holds at the library because some of the books I had placed are taking a really long time. The longest one will take 20 weeks until it is my turn to borrow it which makes me wonder how I have the patience to wait for books. The longest time I had waited for a library book is a little over half a year and that book was such a disappointment but I still continue to wait. I don't know where I get the patience but I have plenty of it when it comes to waiting for library books. (Note: I read only borrowed library ebooks.)

07 - Do you ever hit the wrong keys on your computer and your screen or app or window that are opened does some crazy or inexplicable things you can't undo or fix? That's me most daily now. It's especially annoying when I'm using Firefox because they added features I didn't want and can't turn off because some of them have no turn off option and some makes no sense to me. 
    I hate it when users have to adapt to do things in new ways instead of doing it their way. Sometimes I think app creators or technology-related creators likes to annoy users by forcing them to do things their way or how else to explain why updates and upgrades are always so annoyingly dumber or worst?

What's on your mind these days? 

Seven Things

01 - Why are phones so huge? Recently, the battery in my old phone (old model that is quite small) is having a slow death so I had to get a replacement and the choices are large phones. Why? Why do we need such large screens on a phone? I'm a simple person. I don't use a phone for anything but calls and texting. I also don't need a 1,000 options and apps to customize it to the point of extreme personalizing. And it's so damm heavy. I guess I can use it as a weapon when necessary.

Seven Things: There may be ramblings

01 - I changed my blog's header but I doubt anyone noticed. I would always notice if someone change something on their blog but that's an occupational hazard. Anyway, I just like a change, like a redesign or maybe a re-adjustment of what I have been using. I think if you are to redesign something such as a blog header, you should either use the same elements or do something completely different. I prefer to use the same elements so even if people don't notice the change, they are reminded what's unchanged and the unchanged usually helps to familiarize you even if you don't know it or so I believe. So here's the old and the new for you to compare.

12/2024

01/2025

02 - Every time I updated Firefox, there is some new feature to remove or hide or some feature is suddenly too apparent or suddenly unable to disable for reasons I can never understand. Updates are for improving not to add things to annoy people but maybe they are trying to improve but maybe for people other than me or why else I hate everything they keep updating?

Seven Things

01 - I have changed my blog's header and background colors to a warmer palette. It's not a big change but maybe it gives off a different vibe. Before, it was a cool, mostly blue palette. Am I the only one who thinks about colors and feelings when it comes to blog templates? 

02 - For some odd reason, I no longer get email notifications for some readers when they leave comments on my blog even though I had notifications before. I still get notifications for others so this makes no sense. It was like a sudden thing. I didn't change any setting or anything. Recently, pop-up comments now have reply function but I doubt that change anything with email notification functions but who knows. I still get comments marked as spam, even my own comments. There's a glitch somewhere, right? I swear google does not like blogger users at all.

03 - The 12th annual Tolkien Blog Party 2024 starts on September 22. It's hosted by Rachel at The Edge of the Precipice. I only participated once but I had enjoyed it. I admit the only books I read of Tolkien is the three Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit and I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies. More about this blog party over here.

04 - I don't like it how some videos are now HDR (High Dynamic Range) videos on youtube. They are so bright, probably 40 times brighter than any normal screen, it hurts to watch them and there's no option to turn it off anywhere, not at youtube, not on my computer. Whose brilliant idea that we needed HDR to "make images look more realistic and true-to-life?" HD (high definition) is already far too clear than normal screens so why do we need this HDR? I prefer not to watch anything that is "more realistic and true-to-life" because that takes away the charm of fictional reality. Plus do you really want to see the pores on an actor's face ten times as clearly as before?

05 - Movies I had watched recently on youtube free with ads:

- Scales: Mermaids are real - It was a pretty good movie until the end. I don't want to spoil it but SPOILER: a girl mermaid turns a man into water, basically murders him and everyone's okay with it. So yes, that's a good solution but they could have just turn one of his hands into water, just to show what they could do, scare the bastard or maybe the girl's mother should have done the killing so then a 12-year-old wouldn't be responsible for killing a human. But there seems to be no consequence for what she had done so I don't know what the writers were thinking. Plus, a boy with brittle bones who can barely walk could easy ride a bike with no issues is dumb. Other than the ending, it's a good movie about a girl becoming a mermaid with some minor jokes.

- Persuasion (1995) - I've not watched this version because I didn't like the lead actor and actress but I thought I should give it a try after I saw someone's review of this adaptation. This was okay. I had read the book, seen the other 2007 adaptation, knew what was going to happen so it's sort of like watching a repeat with different actors and a slightly different ending but still kind of the same but I think the 2007 version is better but maybe because it looked more modern somehow even though both of them are period dramas.

- Another man's poison (1951) - SPOILER: I thought they should have ended with Bette Davis' character getting away with it all but no. All the men here seemed so awful even the doctor, he's like a busybody who really should have minded his own business. It's not a movie that solves anything or offer any type of happy ending, just a movie to show how cruel fate could be.

- Taken 3 - It's was fun to watch even though you sort of know it's a bit unbelievable the things Bryan Mills (played by Liam Neeson) did but that's why it's fun and entertaining. Forget logic or loose ends because we want to root for Mills no matter how many men he kills in the process.
 
06 - Do book titles have to keep their promise? There's a book with a boy in the title but the boy turned out to be a girl. Do readers have a right to be mad about this? I would. I think it makes the story harder to accept or like. The author promised a boy character and then it's revealed as some twist and said he's really a girl. If they said the boy had a sex change operation and became a girl, then that's fine with me. To pretend she was a boy right from the start is just wrong. But mostly because she, being a girl, is supposed to be a surprise twist to the story which I don't think it's a surprise or a twist, more like a dumb move to make a book exciting when it's not.

07 - I've been reading epilogues that just ruined books for me. I can accept any ending as long as they makes sense but epilogues is another thing. I had read one too many endings with epilogues that basically ruined the ending that I'm now incline not to read them. Epilogues are to give a farther view of future events instead of trying to alter the thinking of the ending or the story, right? But that's not what authors are doing, at least, in the books I read. When an epilogue alters my thinking of a character or an event, I think it's not an epilogue, it's a story-changing, alternative reality kind of information or message. I'm not even sure what I'm actually trying to say but only that I think it's better not to use epilogues unless you know it won't piss off readers.

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things

01 - I finally posted a hello/about page. You can read it here or click on the hello link below the header. I do have an about/introduction post which is the first post of this blog which you can read over here. I like having an about page because it gives readers a sort of a little intro to me, the blogger, since not every reader will read the first post.

02 - I've been slacking in commenting on blogs but then again, I've been slacking on a lot of things but it's summer. I feel the hot weather is an excuse not to do anything productive. But that's probably my lazy self talking. Also, I go to war every other week with a fly or two. That's what you get for keeping windows open.
    
03 - You would think after 18+ years of writing (I had started writing the same time I started blogging), I would have more confidence in my work but I don't. I had a chance to post several short story fiction that I had finished but then I didn't. (I try to post my fiction pieces in between other posts so it won't be one fiction post after another.) And my stories are becoming a bit longer than usual. The more I edit a piece, the longer it becomes because I would think of things to add which is why my fiction posts are the least read but I'm okay with that. If one or two people read it, it's enough.
    I know my writing have barely improved in the last few years but at least I know I don't suck as much as some of the books that are published but I don't have the confidence as those authors. Those authors are willing to put their work out there even if the reviews trashed them and saying how badly they needed an editor. Where do these people get their confidence?
    Posting my fictions on my blog is really the only chance I'll ever have anything published. My problem is in finishing. I lack motivation. I lack discipline. And tons of other things but I'll keep trying to finish my writings because maybe one day, I'll have a whole book completed.

04 - Some people believe there's no such thing as a bad book and that it depends on whether the book resonate with the reader or not. I want to be neutral on this but heck, I'm not neutral. There are bad books and there are a ton of evidence on this: the books themselves. People can love what they want and that's okay. It's all opinions. Just don't try to change my opinion on those bad books.

05 - Romantasy anyone? It's the latest word combination that I had heard lately and I think it's the dumbest one yet. I already saw this word in several youtube video titles and I hated it. But of course this word and many new ones to come will eventually get into people's head and will be used so much that, it will be a common word. But I still hate it.

06 - One store (or perhaps there are more I don't know of) locked their products behind glass doors so if you want to buy a product that is locked which is like 85% of the whole place, then you have to ask for help or press one of those buttons and wait for someone to come and unlock so you can get the product. This says the store doesn't trust customers. This says theft is so rampant that the store is forced to do this. But even if this deters thieves which probably does, it also deters customers. How do you feel about asking someone to unlock a door so you can get a box of bunion cream? That's an example but I now just ask to unlock for one product and then pay and leave because I find this very annoying. It's extra work for the employees and the customers cannot get to the products to read the labels so you can't even do comparison shopping. You have to know exactly which product you want or you might feel like an ninny for wasting the employee's time. It's uncomfortable shopping, is what this is.

07 - I'll not be buying ebooks anymore. I got a kobo clara bw ereader to help me with that. I'll pretty much be borrowing ebooks from my local library through overdrive. I didn't even put any credit card info on my kobo account (although I did get email telling me I should add this info) so this will (mostly) deter me from buying ebooks needlessly. But old habits are hard to leave behind so this could turn into an expensive mistake but I'm willing to make it if only to get out of the kindle eco-system. If I can't get a book through overdrive which does happen because if the kobo store doesn't have a listing of a book you borrow, it won't show up on your kobo so you either learn to use epub books or read pdf books or read it through a kindle ereader which I do because I really hate trying to set up epub books or read pdf books. If I love a book (which has been rare these couple of years) and I want a copy, I'll buy the paper version.

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things

01 - I've been reading nothing but book samples and that's okay — I guess I'm not interested in reading much these days. Reading slump, reading fatigue, reading pause, whatever you call it, is not something to make a big deal of. I'm a moody reader who don't always want to read and there's no changing that. Reading is reading even if you never finish a book.

02 - A book I'm never going to read: The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud — Why are there cannibalism in a children's adventure book? I was going to read this but decided I can't deal with the above matter. One reviewer said it was intense and in real time - just no to this. This is not a spoiler. I guess this is content awareness of a sort. But what's irks me more is the wholesome cover - the girl is blowing bubblegum for goodness sake. See the cover here.

03 - A book sample that I'm not sure I should have read — A book started in the point of view of a 2-year-old but his age wasn't mentioned in the beginning so when he mentioned soiling himself, I just go what? He may be a baby genius but I just cannot believe his brain would be that developed that he can understand what he sees or thinks in a comprehensive way although judging by the writing, it seemed to try to make him a bit dumb about things but at the same time, not really. Was I prejudiced because of his age? Maybe. I don't know. I just found it kind of unbelievable. So, yes this is fiction but if I can't even believe it on a general level, then what's the point? Is this author reaching for the way-way-way youth market? Baby geniuses aside, if the author had made him 4 or even 3, I might believe it more. Even though this was a prologue (the rest of the book is told from his adult view), I still don't like this introduction to this main character enough to read the book. (I can't remember the title but it was the first book of a series.)

Signal the movie

04 - Recent film I watched: Signal The movie: Cold Case Investigation Unit > link
This was okay although I wondered why the policeman (Saegusa) went to battle three guys while his fellow two policemen are in the control room staring at screens. Saegusa got stabbed, shot at, punched and pretty much almost died but no one was there to help him. What is the point of being in a team when your team members aren't doing anything while you fight like crazy with the bad guys? In the end, Saegusa dragged himself to where the culprit was, all bloody and wounded, why? So he can be the sole hero? But no, the solution is something else which means his fighting was kind of in vain. I'm not going to spoil it for you but if you have seen the show, then you know how this movie would end. Watch this movie for free with commercials at youtube here.

05 - It's kind of odd the way Blogger now only works with tracking protection off. You can't sign into other Blogger blogs to comment unless you turn off tracking protection. I don't know why that is when it wasn't like this before they changed spam filters (or whatever it was changed that had to do with spam). Of course my browser remembers my options so I don't always have to turn tracking protection off but why do we even have to anyway? You can leave comments without signing in (assuming the blogger had chosen to allow anonymous commenting) but I don't like using anonymous to comment when I have a Blogger account. (To turn off tracking protection in firefox, you just click on the shield icon next to the url address bar.)

06 - Because of region restrictions or region block, I cannot watch the last season of Vera. The company that mades the show didn't allow digital purchases in the U.S. which was how I watched the show but I didn't get to watch all the seasons because of region restriction. So yes, I can subscribe to Britbox to watch the episodes I missed and the last season but I refused. I'm not going to subscribe just to watch one show. I guess I'll have to read episode recaps to find out what happens or maybe not.

07 - Firefox keeps asking me to update even though I have updated a million times already — Why don't they just make it that you update to the very latest version whenever you update? Why does it work in increments? So yes, apps needs to be updated for security reasons and such but come on, how much update can they do anyway? I can download the latest, greatest version but then I would have to rebuild bookmarks and preferences but that won't solve the update problem because there will always be updates. Why did firefox removed the option NOT to check for updates? Why don't users have a choice to check for updates and then choose when to update? Why are app makers (and computer makers) keep removing options that allow users to make choices? Are users so dumb that the choices have to be made for us?

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things: There may be some ramblings

01 - The cold season makes me less motivated to do things and strangely, these days, it kind of makes me want to read less. Most people believe that reading is better than watching tv and I agree with that but sometimes you want to get lost in someone's lives so to stop worrying about yours. And yes, books can do that but visual and sound stimulation are easier to get distracted by. The little clocks in my head don't always want to read words and yet, I read a lot of subtitles as most of the shows I watch aren't in English. But really, I am just too lazy to concentrate on anything that involves active brain work.

02 - Sometimes I think if I have never touched a computer (or any devices), I might have been a better human. I depend on technology more than I like and I'm a less active person for being a computer user but I can't blame the computers because I choose to use them.
    I used to upgrade everything all the time but now I don't care at all. I'm perfectly fine being behind technology but this year, I had to upgrade to a new mac OS (operating system) or at least, the most recent version that my computer can upgrade to. I only did it for work otherwise I would keep using the old system until I can't. When you upgrade to a new system, most of your apps no longer work and then you have to spend time and money upgrading them and then you might also have to re-learn them or end up using alternative versions if there are no new ones available. So much work involve just to use the latest/greatest tech - is it worth it? I still don't have an answer for that even after years of using computers and implementing thousands of upgrades through the years.

03 - I don't like how youtube sneaked in advertisements in between video recommendations. Sometimes I can't tell an advertisement from a real video as most video thumbnails look like advertisement anyhow. (These advertisements does said Sponsored below them but that's hard to see). Isn't it enough there's several commercials before a video, one or two commercials in between video, another commercial after the end of the video (which makes no sense to me because who sticks around to watch commercials when they could just close the window?)? I guess this is a sign for me to watch less youtube which I am planning on doing. As soon as I can control myself enough to do so, that is. Why is it so hard to quit watching youtube videos?

04 - I really like this post, How Romance Can Bloom in the Homes and Places of Persuasion.  This post refers to the book Persuasion by Jane Austen but the idea of home settings interest me and not just for romance. I do agree that homely, charming places with happy, busy families allow happiness to grow. It's not just the people but the environment as well as people have preferences on how their home should look. But I wouldn't say smaller homes has happier environments but certainly if people are physically far apart, communication or interactions between them are probably affected. Read the post at Elizabeth's blog, Small Home Comforts here.

05 - Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy is hosting a We Heart Siblings Stories Week from February 19-23. I'll try to think of something to post but I doubt I can come up with anything. Check out this blog event here.

06 - What's on my (fake) twitter feed this week:
- practicing not yelling at my computer screen
- stalking blogs while drunk on chocolate
- waiting for miracles & hope I don't forget to do things I should be doing
- watching youtube videos & pretend I'm working

07 - Every time I log into my Blogger dashboard, I see the sum number of published posts and drafts I have and it looks like I could reach 300 posts pretty soon. I had only reached 300 posts for a few of my blogs (which I deleted) and 800 posts (which I also deleted because I'm ruthless) for one blog but all my other blogs were below 300 posts (at least from what I can recall). Numbers shouldn't matter and yet, for some odd reason, I feel like reaching 300 posts for this blog should mean something, I just don't know what that is. But it's still something to celebrate, right?

What's on your mind today?

Seven Things : Just some thoughts

bonkers (color version), 2023, digital

01 - Review words/phrases I found quite amusing: (1) Rage-delete. Someone wrote in a book review they had to 'rage-deleted' an ebook because they hated it/got offended by it. I can understand this but seriously, when you're trying to delete a digital file which is you pressing down or poking at the screen several times, it's not as satisfying or as fast as throwing a physical book across the room because your e-reader will pause and ask you if you really want to delete the book. It's a safeguard so you don't accidentally delete a book but really unhelpful when you want to 'rage-delete' a book. I'm sure amazon would love to remove that option so people will have to re-purchase books.  (2) Badbutt - it seems badass is too much like cursing to this reviewer so badbutt it is.

02 - Youtube (which is owned by google) will now not allow you to use ad blockers so if you want to see videos for free, you have to allow ads. If you don't want ads, then, you have to pay 12 dollars a month which is just a bit too much. If they cut that in half, I would actually consider paying. Technically youtube is not free because people have to pay for wi-fi and electricity, it's not really that free but no one thinks about those things, do they?
    So far, the ads are okay but for some odd reason, they keep showing teeth or toothpaste ads which I really, really wish to never see. It's the one reason I started using ad blockers. I just hope they will not remove the 'skip ad' option because some ads are really, really annoying.

03 - Does a book lover always have to be reading? Can you love books and not do much reading? I still haven't been reading much and it's not a terrible thing. I didn't fall out of love for reading books, I'm just at a pause. I believe if you can't enjoy a book, you simply put it down. If you don't want to read, you simply not read. I'm just waiting for a good book to come along and put me back to my reading journey.

04 - I switched google email account for my Blogger blog but now I can't change the background of my comments to the light blue I always had no matter how I tweaked the template. So now my comments has a white background just like readers who leave comments on my blog. I know it's a small matter but I like to be identified as the blog owner responding to comments.

05 - Digital photography is great until you have to sort through 500 photos to pick out 50 or so and then it's just so damm too much work. Sometimes I have to do this for work. Often, I thought of blindly choosing photos by picking the first or the last 50 photos but that's kind of not doing the work so I don't do it but it really takes a lot of patience for this task which is especially annoying if they send you the notice to do this at about 4 pm and you have only an hour to do it even though it takes about 2 or more hours to actually sort the photos. And then, you have to resize the images for web use so, yeah, technology, really fun. At least most of time, it's 300 photos instead of 500.

06 - I now enjoy listening to a lot of music in Mandarin. Before, I kind of disliked listening to Mandarin songs because the sound of the words weren't appealing to me for some odd reason. This could be a side effect of watching one too many Taiwanese dramas because they played music all the time. But it could just be me. I don't actually understand Chinese all that well so most of the time, I don't know what the lyrics mean but I think you can enjoy music even if you don't understand the language. But I did look up some of the songs. Youtube had a lot of videos where Chinese songs are translated to English which I appreciated a lot.
    And album cover arts? They are increasingly getting amazingly ugly and even grotesque. At the iTunes store, I once saw a cover with a guy's head between someone's naked legs covering their private parts - is this what people called good album cover? I think I prefer a bland headshot of the artist instead.

07 - Who likes daylight saving time? There's all kind of explanations for this but no one seems to like the idea. I think I prefer more daylight in the winter, not in the summer. Every time we have to set our clocks forward or backward an hour, it screws up my sleeping pattern and then it takes me a month to adjust. It's too bad I can't just move to a country with no daylight saving time which there seems to be many.

What's on your mind these days?

Seven Things : Some Ramblings

01 - I have changed my post background color into a very light shade of blue. I've found the white to be too white for my eyes to read the text. If you're like me and have to look at the screen almost every single day, I think a less white background makes it easier. I also make bold text in the darker blue instead of the regular blue. Do people think about these things?

02 - Have you ever got a letter from your bank asking if you're still alive? They didn't word it like that but you get that message. I might have freaked out a bit about losing all my savings to the government as they will turn the money over to them if I didn't confirm my living status. I have no idea that if you leave your savings account untouched for two or more years, they would think you're dead. It's natural to think that way. We are constantly spending. And that's life. It has been months and I should have forgotten this letter but I didn't. It's kind of crazy but it made me think of my mortality and it sort of made me depressed for a week, maybe two.

03 - When a book is bad and everyone said is bad, then why does everybody wants to read it? I guess I can understand enjoying books that are bit trashy or even badly written but where is the enjoyment exactly? And why do bad books become so popular that everyone wants to read it? I enjoy writing reviews about bad books but I don't enjoy them as reading material.

04 - I don't like cursing in books, that is, mainly the use of the four letter F word unnecessarily. When a character is angry and they curse and use the F word, it's fine but using it for no other reason is sort of pointless. So yes, using the F word does suggest a strong dislike or strong emotions for something but most of the time, I find, it's totally unnecessary.
    I read or rather I half-read a book where the characters used two curse words, damm and sh*t over and over as if they had never heard of any other curses. Here the absence of the F word is surprising to me especially it's the sort of books that could easily use that word and it would fit in with the characters. So why are some authors so freely use the F word and others don't? I don't understand it. But I'm a prude so...

05 - I've come to think I am no longer good at my job. I keep doubting myself and thinking is this done correctly? I had to go research online to be certain everything is done correctly. (I'm a graphic designer by the way.) There's always a chance for mistakes. I corrected them but it doing so, it made me miserable. I would quit but I don't know. It's tough trying to make a living but I know I have it better than most people but it's hard to erase your own fears and doubts.

06 - Watching romantic comedies depresses me and I guess it's why I prefer watching crime and mysteries (or what I often refer to as crime and miseries). To enjoy a show is to immerse yourself in other people's lives and I guess other people's happy ending, especially of a couple, sort of make my life seem rather dull and meaningless as a single person. But I still somehow enjoy watching these romantic comedies but I don't watch them often.

07 - EBook samples — I used to go to book stores and randomly (well, I do go to the fiction section), and choose a book with a good title or an interesting cover and read a page or two but not the beginning, rather the middle of the book. With ebook samples, you can't do that. Ebook samples only offer the beginning of the book which are usually the copyright notice & such, maybe a dedication or some notes from the author, chapter listing and then a chapter or two and if there is a prologue, that too.
    You can judge to read a book by these beginning samples but I find it's not enough or rather, perhaps something from the middle of the book or quarter way would have been better. But I think they only offer the beginning of the book so that if you like, you can buy the book and continue reading. (I read mostly kindle books.)
    But I suppose a sample of the beginning of the book is better than none. I had encountered one or two books where the sample is mostly just copyright notices, some notes and a list of chapters but nothing of the actual book so you don't even get a sense how it is written. I think chapter listing is kind of useless as a book sample because most books just have chapter 1, chapter 2, etc so it's quite unhelpful.
    
Anything on your mind? Do share them in the comments.

Seven Things

My favorite summer drink is strawberry lemonade which is why I drew that above.

01 - New header — I think a change even something as small as a blog header is always refreshing and brings new life and energy to a blog or so I believe but it doesn't matter why. Sometimes a change is just a change. 

02 - Writing and not posting — I write a lot of drafts but they don't get posted as I didn't finish them. I don't know why but I can't finish a lot of them. Sometimes what you thought was a good idea and then you check back later and find the idea is just not as good as before. But I don't know what's good these days. I only post what interest me and maybe one or two people. Who knows what one gets interest until they happen to come across them. I'm certainly a bad judge since I pretty much dislike most things.

03 - Reading Jane Austen is a bit boring now — So maybe it's not her books that are boring but maybe one particular a book I'm currently trying to finish. Mansfield Park is the only finished novel of Austen's I haven't read (I'm not interested her early or unfinished works). I've tried reading Mansfield Park three times before this but never got far enough. The more I read, the more boring it seems to me. I'm wondering if I was influenced by the movie I saw (It was the version starring Frances O'Connor). That movie was awful and it made it seemed like Edmund settled for Fanny because she was the last viable choice and that he didn't really love her all that much. And there was a bit about slavery that was a bit unsavory and thankfully I didn't see the version with the very risque sex scene.
    Reading about rich, snobbery people and the mundane things they do is kind of boring. And Fanny, well, she's just there now and then. We get to know her feelings and her thinking but basically, she might as well be a background character that people thought about when necessary. Edmund seems to care for her but honestly even he forgets her existence from time to time when he is with a pretty lady. And there are so much dialogues, some of them are a bit inane. But I only read up to chapter 13 so perhaps I should hold judgement. Right now, I don't seem to want to continue reading it.

04 - No more (unintentional) TBR pile — I've removed all the books I haven't finished reading off my kindle. Those books have been there for years so it was time to give them up. I don't make to-be-read lists but I seem to have unintentionally made a TBR list by accumulating these ebooks. I did  want to read them at the time I brought them though most of them were free or 99 cents so I don't feel bad giving them up. But if I have brought them as paper books (which would be more expensive), I don't know if I would have given them up as easily.

05 - Library books — I'm actually not reading a lot of library books even with a kindle and their large selections. And now I'm having issues renewing my virtual card. I'm not sure I want to renew it as I have to do it every year because you can't get a permanent library card without going to an actual brick and mortar library which I did try but I'm too annoyed by the people to try again. But I'm barely reading these days.

06 - Lazy blogging? — I haven't been doing a lot of commenting on blogs or posting because of work but that's an excuse. I can set aside a time to blog but somehow whenever I have to schedule anything, it feels like work so it's why I don't schedule anything unless I have to. I think there's joy in not doing things on schedule but I suppose that's another way of saying I'm lazy. After blogging so many years, I find I'm less active in blogging although I still would like to blog more but I lack the motivation. It's one of those vicious cycle of my life - I lack motivation when I want to do things. I can't do anything about it but try to conquer it somehow but I'll probably continue on with my lazy blogging.

07 - Lazy summer — It always seems to me summer is a more relax season, a time to do less and be lazy. It's just too bad we don't all go on vacation during the summer. Even as I worry about being unproductive, I think just being lazy sometimes can be good for you so say the lazy person (me). True or not, let's all have a relax summer (or winter if you're on the other side of the world).

Got anything you want to share today? Leave them in the comments.

Seven Things

01 - Motivation is nowhere — I'm very unmotivated these days. I don't know why but I can't focus on anything. I can't blame it on work even if it's crazy-busy this month but I kind of do. When your energy is spent, it's hard to want to do things even if you love those things.

02 - Not much reading — I'm not doing much reading although I did finish one book this month so far. Every book I started reading is kind of boring. But I did try re-reading my favorites because that's how I usually beat the reading blues. But maybe I don't need to do anything. Maybe I just need to find the right books to read or simply not read for a while.

03 - Watching a lot of old tv shows — I've been watching a lot of old tv crime shows. (Old means ten or more years before this year.) What I find strange is whenever there are female leads, there is always romance or that she gets a boyfriend eventually while if there is a male lead, there is less chance of a romance or even if there is a romance, it doesn't work out. Why are females always coupled up while the male remained single? This can be said as sexist but it's more like we all still think females are meant to be mothers and wives while males keep his freedom. Of course if the female lead is older than forty or fifty, she reminds single. I suppose it's hard to change since it's been that way for hundreds of years but I honestly thought modern television should be more progressive. But then again, this may just be nonsense since I didn't watch every crime show there is but certainly, it's true for the shows I've seen.

04 - Summer is coming very, very near — I'm not ready for summer. It's not just the waking up with a stuffy nose or itchy/watery eyes, I just can't get use to the change in temperature/season no matter how many times I have experienced it. Why do some of us take habitual changes badly? It's not like there is really any difference from the year before. I don't know, I find seasonal changes never easy.

05 - Google is replacing Universal Analytics with Analytics 4 which means absolutely nothing to me — Not that they explain it well but you can read about it here. Of course, it says nothing about Blogger users or really, any type of users. Either you know what the heck they are talking about or you don't. If they want to, they can just do the switch for us and announced it afterward but I guess they want users to figure it out themselves or give up in frustration. I don't know what the hell this Analytics do aside from something to do with statistics. I don't care about stats so I'm not going to bother with this. I only know about this because I got an email about it.

06 - Bye, Bye Book Depository — It's old news but Book Depository has closed and if you go to their website, it will show the announcement. It's not unexpected. Whenever a big company (in this case amazon) buys out a smaller company, either they merge the smaller company into their bigger one or they just close it up.
    I didn't use Book Depository much aside from when I'm giving away books for international readers but I don't do giveaways anymore and I also don't buy as much paper books as I used to. People outside the U.S. will probably be affected more because it's harder for them to get books. But I'm always sad when a bookstore, whether online or in stores, closes up because it means some people somewhere are not getting books.

07 - Slow blogging — I only took a week off blogging but somehow, it feels longer. I'm not going to say I'll post more or post less. I've gotten into the habit of blogging whenever I feel like and I think that's fine. If I get a post up once a week, it's fine, and if not, that's that. I don't want to fret about blogging anymore. Seventeen years of trying to post regularly is enough and it's time to have a more relax schedule or none-schedule although I've been doing this none-schedule thing for a few years now so...
    
Any thoughts to share today? Feel free to leave a comment.